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Face Down in the Right Town by Earlimart

Somehow I totally missed the fact that Earlimart had released a brand new album on July 1st entitled Hymn and Her. I guess why this surprised me so much was that they just released an album last August, especially in age where bands can take up to 10 stupid years to release an album, this is shocking and amazing. This is their sixth album so far, and there’s also been a drastic change in line-up, as the band is now compromised of only Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray. All of that being said, this new album is just as amazing as their last.

There aren’t any drastic like the transition from Treble and Tremble to Mentor Toremnetor, and it almost feels like a more thoughtful, less melancholy extension of Mentor. The songs are somewhat more simple, but overall they sound like people who are happier with their new situation. It’s basically pure pop goodness. Check out the song above, Face Down in the Right Town, and be sure to get to the ending where the horns start in, it’s pretty amazing.

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I Thought I Saw Your Face by She & Him

The other half of this perfect pairs post are the folks from She & Him, comprised of the amazing M. Ward and the surprisingly talented Zooey Deschanel. Ever since I saw The Go-Getter I’ve had a big crush on the both of them, as the music was all done by M. Ward and Ms. Deschanel stared in it. I knew they were making music together as well, but I hadn’t had a chance to check out what they created until a few days ago.

The album, titled Volume One, is another burst of pop goodness, Zooey Deschanel’s voice ranging anywhere from Joanna Newsome, a little bit of Jenny Lewis, Linda Ronstadt, and a number of soul singers from the 60’s. M. Ward’s production is also crisp and precise, helping to not only make her vocals stand out even more, but rounding things out nicely. My only beef with the album was that I wanted M. Ward to sing a little bit more, not just do back-up vocals on a couple of tracks. If you like the song above I would highly suggest giving the album a try.

I just finished watching this really great documentary called Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes, a rather self-explanatory title but extremely interesting to watch. Stanley Kubrick is somewhat of a cult figure (just read through Coudal on any given day) so people trying to figure out the deepest parts of Kubrick is nothing new. But in this documentary Jon Ronson is invited to the Kubrick estate to go through his immense collections of boxes, which number into the thousands. The contents of the boxes are extremely varied and all over the place, from photos to fan letters, and show what a detailed and intelligent man he really was.

One of the things I found most interesting was his obsession with perfection, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. For many of his films he’d have his nephew Manuel Harlan take tens of thousands of photos to see what was out there. He took photos of doorways, morgues, estate gates, costume shops, anything that might be useful. He did those for most of his movies as well, like trying to find the perfect hat for the droogies to wear in A Clockwork Orange.

If you have any interest in Kubrick I would definitely suggest watching this, it’s quite insightful. Also, I don’t know how long the video will stay up, so watch it ASAP.

Hey Torontonians! Tomorrow night there’s a new art show opening up called No Parachute Required at Gallery 1313, and it looks like it’s gonna be awesome. The show features artwork from +KN buddy Rey Ortega, Christina Ung, Alexei Vella, Greg Hill, Michael Byers and Kyung Soon Park. Honestly I wasn’t familiar with most of these artists, but going through their sites I was quite pleased to see some really great work. So if you’re in the Parkdale District tomorrow night between 7 and 10 I would highly suggest stopping by and supporting your local artists.

It’s Wednesday and I’ve got to admit, I’m hella excited about today’s wallpaper. I’ve basically got this giant trove of wallpapers just waiting in the wings to be given to you all, so it’s really exciting when I get to give away one of my absolute favorites. Today’s artist is none other than the amazing Noah Butkus, a man known for his psuedo-comic book style drawings that are filled with all sorts of odd and abstract images. When I first came across Noah’s artwork I was immediately in love, I had this complete gut reaction to what I was seeing and I immediately wanted to see more and more.

For The DWP Noah sent me this awesome sketch he did of one of his hooded, ghost men riding a skateboard and snapping a giant sword in half with his bare hands. This for me, is fucking amazing, haha… I think this appeals to my inner child a lot, there’s swords, blood, skateboarding, I don’t really need anything more than that. I think I’ve had this image for months now, and I’ve just been waiting for the perfect time to show it. I’ve also though about getting it tattooed on me, I honestly am into it that much. Hopefully you all feel the same way I do!

Oh, man. Here I am again, posting about some ridiculously expensive bike that I couldn’t even buy if I had the money because it’s made in another country. This also stems into my building obsession with bikes, which I’ve now decided is what I really want for my birthday, though it won’t be anything quite like this. The bike you see above is the Guv’nor by Pashley, and I have a really big crush on it.

The Guv’nor harkens back to old school British bikes, being both elegant and comfortable at the same time. I just think it looks beautiful, with it’s black frame, black alloy rims and cream-colored tires, and a titanium seat that looks like old leather. The Guv’nor also comes in six different models, single speed and 3-speed versions in three different sizes. I’m guessing this bike would be awesome to ride, the company that makes them, Pashley, has been around since 1926, so I’m pretty sure they have a good idea of what they’re doing. But sadly, the Guv’nor runs a sweet Â£795.00, or almost $1600 for those of us here stateside, which means there’s no way Bobby will ever own one of these. That’s okay, I’ll just buy a cheap bike and make it look exactly the same!

You know when you go on vacation, and you happen to come across something really awesome and think, “Man! Why don’t they make this where I live?” Well, now there’s an entire store devoted to these lovingly crafted products, a wonderful site called KIOSK. Based in SoHo, New York, KIOSK basically curates range of products from a far off place, their most recent outing is from Hong Kong, and the products are sold for 4 to 6 months until they visit some other place and bring in new batch of goodies. One thing they also talk about is the objects being “humble” and “straightforward” which I think is pretty great. It’s nice to appreciate these objects as beautiful because of how simple they are.

The image you see above is a ton of things that caught my eye. These items are from all over the world, Hong Kong, Japan, Sweden, Mexico, Germany, and Finland. There are packs of crayons and chalk, giant knives, candy, a bag, a dartboard, a plastic flask, a chimney sweep that looks like ceiling ornament, licorice rolling papers, and a ton of crazy things in between. Some of the things are sold out already, but since there are tons of stuff, I’m pretty sure anyone visiting can find something to enjoy. Expect to waste at least 30 minutes or more on this site, there’s a ton of stuff to sort through, so be prepared!

I came across this little gem a few days ago, I think possibly through FFFFOUND, and though it isn’t new, I thought it was pretty rad. Back in 1962, the epically-amazing designer Saul Bass, best known for his title and credit works for movies, created a beautiful little book called Henri’s Walk To Paris. The story is about a boy who lives in Reboul but wishes he lived in Paris. He then reads a book about Paris and decides to take a trip there, but along the way he ends up taking a nap. I guess this is where the book gets good and weird, as all kids books should. It’s also pretty cool to see Saul take his signature style and apply it to a kids book, supposedly the only one he ever did.

I’ve been a fan of Tom Muller’s work for quite a while now, his name coming into my vocabulary because of his work with the amazing Ashley Wood. The other day I took a visit to his site and noticed the rad poster you see above that he created for Darren Firth’s Now Showing exhibit. For me personally, this poster brings me back to my childhood. My mother raised me on a strange assortment of movies, this happening to be one of them. So I have all these random memories of palm crystals and death chambers and libraries overgrown with foliage.

For the poster Mr. Muller ended up attacking it one, but ended up in a completely different place. At first he started out with more of an infographic approach, visually representing the 30 year lifespan of a person living in that world. I think this version looks awesome, but Tom wasn’t happy with it. So his focus shifted to the exterior of the Selfridges store in Birmingham, something his wife suggested to him. Based up on that he asked his brother Tim to create a “kind of red rubbery studded ball in 3D”, something that could represent many things in an abstract way. This lead to a more simple approach to the poster, using Futura as the font and keeping things clean and minimal.